It's Worth A Look Under The Hood

I spent the last week on the road with a couple of clients. We’re setting up and forecasting for the year's second half, eating hot wings and reviewing their sales processes.

These are great companies providing solutions and outcomes that their competitors can’t, and they’ve outpaced market growth for years. Their success has been remarkable.

As I’ve come in and worked with these teams, I’m noticing some little things that haven’t been done. Their processes haven’t been sloppy per se, but they could definitely be tightened up a bit. 

Tension isn’t always created. Next steps aren’t always asked for or confirmed. Sales cycles are unintentionally extended. There’s a LOT of time spent following up, and it’s nearly impossible to forecast.

Don’t forget; these sellers do so many things right that they make up for all of this. They produce consistent revenue, and the companies are growing. 

Therein lies the rub. Their behavior is normalized.

“Our sales cycles just take a while.” 

“We need to be patient.”

When reps are embedded in a company and succeeding by their own measures, it’s really hard to be critical about their processes.

But if you want to scale, what got you here won’t get you where you want to go next.

Success isn’t always a great teacher. You have to be willing to take a good, hard look at your sales process and do so regularly. This will help make sure you’re not leaving potential deals on the table, and maximizing the margins on the ones you do win.

Perfection isn’t the expectation, but if it’s been a few years since you’ve evaluated the steps of your sales process, the entrance and exit criteria for each step, and some of your messaging, I’ll bet you can shorten your sales cycles by 30% and increase margins by 10-20%.

So much of your sales success is determined not by what you sell, but by how you sell. Little tweaks make a big difference, and your prospects feel it.

Of course, if you want help, let me know, but here’s what you should be asking yourself…

✧ How well do you know your ideal customer?

✧ Have you spoken with them recently?

✧ What do you want to know about your prospects’ intentions and motives?

✧ What do you need to know about their ability to buy from you?

✧ What does a well-qualified prospect look like to you?

✧ Once you’ve done good discovery, what do your next steps look like?

✧ And then?

✧ And then? 😉

✧ Are you asking for these next steps at every meeting?

✧ Are they scheduled in real-time while you’re with your prospects?

✧ Are you making suggestions in your customers’ best interests or just waiting for them to tell you what they want?

✧ What takes longer than you think it should? Why?

✧ Why can’t it be shorter?

In a team meeting, you might be surprised at how much consensus you don’t get from your team. That’s a sign that you can tighten things up a bit. 

When you settle in to do the work, you'll start to optimize your revenue cycle. You’ll also learn a lot more about what it means to sell. That’ll pay dividends to you and your team forever.

What did I miss? What else should you be asking about your process?

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